It plans to open at the end of June during Southbank Centre’s summer long Festival of the World and is described as “pushing the boundaries of sustainable restaurants”.

The temporary restaurant will be located on the terrace of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the shipping containers will be arranged in a two-storey overhanging structure, allowing space for a terrace, bar, 130 diners and lots of outdoor seating.

Tristan Manco, one of the world’s biggest influential commentators on street art, will be working with Wahaca to pick a series of graffiti artists to decorate the restaurant.

The initial artwork will be completed by street artist Saner, who is travelling from Mexico City, to complete what’s promised to be the first of a striking series of murals on the site.

Co-founder of Mark Selby, said, “This is a great experiment for us. Placing eight sea containers on Southbank Centre’s terrace without gas and scarcely any electricity and expecting to open up a fully functional restaurant and bar has certainly caused an extensive amount of head scratching, but over the last five years that seems to be what we’ve done best at Wahaca.”

This exciting project will be experimental as staff will continue to play around with the design of the restaurant and food. The seasonal Mexican specials will change frequently and Thomasina Miers, executive chef, will be inviting other chefs to cook alongside her to try out new ingredients and adapt the menu on an on-going basis.

This will allow the chefs to understand which foods the public enjoy most, before bringing the foods and dishes to their main Wahaca restaurants.

Wahaca was lauched by Selby and former BBC MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers and currently has restaurants in both the Westfields in London, Covent Garden, Soho, Canary Wharf and Bluewater.

The Mexican restaurant chain celebrates its 5th birthday this year and will open its 8th restaurant on Charlotte Street which will have the group’s first breakfast bar and market store, once the restaurant insurance, staff, supplies and decor have all been put into place.

It’s always great to hear about restaurants doing well when the news in mainly focused around businesses struggling during this hard economic times.

In the last few years, there have been many discussions about how to label and display the amount of calories, fat, salt and sugar in food, with many different systems in place.

The consultation that will be launched across the UK will take place by the government over the next 3 months.
Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, said that it was “common sense” to get everyone using the same system as it makes it easier for consumers to make a healthier choice when food shopping.

Some manufacturers and retailers have used a “traffic light” system which lists the healthiest foods are labelled in green and the least healthy foods are in red.

Some use a Guideline Daily Amounts or GDAs which gives consumers a percentage of recommended intake and others use both.

Consistency

At the end of last year, European regulations were agreed that nutritional information must be labelled per 100g or per portion. Lansley said to the BBC that it was “not possible” for him or other health ministers to “impose a solution other than the EU solution”.

But he said that he was eager to work with businesses to find a “consistent” approach which could be introduced across the UK.

Langley suggested that uniting both the GDA systems and the traffic light system could help consumers.
He suggested that combine both the traffic light and GDA systems could help consumers.

Langley said he was looking for a system which “incorporates not only what Europe requires in terms of recommended daily allowance for calories and sugar and salt and saturated fats, but in addition to that to give a means by which consumers can look at a glance, for example, using things like colour coding.”

Head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, told the BBC “We’re great fans of traffic lights, the simpler the better.”

However, she said the best system would be to have both the colour coding as well as the more detailed GDAs.
Dr Nathanson explained that everyone using the same system would be “enormously” helpful as people were put off by “having to adjust to a different label every time you look at a different food”.

In restaurants, mainly fast food ones, we have started seeing calorie content of foods displayed. Nutritional information has also been more widely available online if consumers want to check the content of their foods.

However, consumers can still be confused about what to eat that’s healthy, so it’s also about finding and sharing healthy recipes that families can cook themselves at home. Healthy eating should also be supported by everyone in the industry including chefs, restaurants, UK restaurant insurance providers, nutritionists and manufacturers.

The survey showed a distinct lack of variety of foods in British diets and a preference for a ‘beige palette’. It involved 3,000 adults, which was conducted for PAGB, the UK trade association for over the counter medicines and food supplements.

The research revealed that most British people eat the same foods everyday at meal times for lunch and breakfast and rely on a small choice of foods for dinner including chicken tikka masala and spag bol. It shows that British people are creatures of habit as 68% go shopping for the same foods each week.

Helen Bond, State Registered Dietician and member of the British Dietetics Association (BDA) said, “Eating the same type of food every day is not only boring but could lead to deficiencies in certain nutrients if the foods are lacking in key nutrients,

“Not eating a variety of food groups, including lots of fruit and vegetables can also compromise the immune and digestive systems and, ultimately, long term health.”

The most popular foods for breakfast included toast, tea and cereal and for lunch, sandwiches were the most popular choice. Nearly half of the respondents ate pasta at least once a week followed by chips and pizza for dinner. A quarter of the participants had takeaways like fish and chips on a weekly basis. The survey suggests that the vast majority of people regularly eat meals based on the colour beige, despite the diversity of foods available in the United Kingdom.

Bond says, “Often the first area to be compromised when we are busy, watching our wallets or feeling stressed is our diet. Hectic lifestyles can lead to a reliance on convenience foods such as mass produced and beige coloured white pasta and pizza, which often lack essential vitamins and minerals. The combination of a stressful modern lifestyle and often a nutrient poor diet makes the inclusion of a food supplement to support our nutritional needs a welcome addition to our daily routine.”

Usually, the average British dinner will include two veggies – carrots, broccoli and onions are the favourites. But even so, 1 in 20 people do not eat any vegetables and 1 in 5 only manage one.

The most popular fruit included bananas, apples and grapes. Bond says, “Traditional selections all provide a good source of vitamins and minerals that keep the body healthy but selecting more exotic varieties such as pineapple and mango can revitalise your taste buds and deliver a host of different nutrients at the same time.”

Similarly to eating in, many Brits, including some of us at QuoteSearcher, mostly order the same foods in restaurants and we know that ordering a masala can be even unhealthier for us rather than cooking at home.

Some of us know that we are not eating very healthily as nearly a third of UK adults who took part in the survey expressed concerns that their current diets aren’t meeting nutritional needs and 1 in 10 who admitted to never eating a balanced, healthy diet.

The newest addition to the McDonalds range is a new healthy soft drink called Fruitizz. It will be available in all stores from next week (16th May).

This product is finally released after three years of product development research. They wanted to create a healthy new drink that still excites children but has a nutritional benefit. It consists of 60 per cent fruit juice from grapes, apples and raspberries combined with sparkling water. There are no added sugars, colours or flavours.

The chief executive and president at McDonalds UK said, “We are thrilled to be unveiling Fruitizz, a refreshing fizzy fruit juice drink that will help parents give children one of their five a day.

“For the past three years, we have been working hard behind the scenes to create a fizzy drink that is unlike anything else currently available in high street restaurants. We tried and tested 80 formulations in order to create the right product that delivers nutritional benefit as well as a new, exciting taste.”

The product went on trial in 62 McDonalds branches in Wales last year and 75 per cent of people who bought Fruitizz with a happy meal said they would choose it again.Fast food is traditionally unhealthy but McDonalds looks set to break the mould as they have embarked on a salt and sugar reduction programme. Last year the average happy meal contained 50 per cent less salt, 21 per cent less saturated fat and 31 per cent less sugar compared to the same product that was sold in 2000. Other healthy options that have been introduced to the happy meal menu are, carrot sticks, fruit bags, mineral water and semi skimmed milk.

By having this new healthy addition to the happy meal menu hopefully this will encourage good press as opposed to the bad press that has been featured recently that all fast food is bad for you. As a result we are sure that all people in the food industry will support the new release including, commercial restaurant insurance companies, manufacturers, critics, suppliers, staff and the general public.

Professor Ole Mouritsen from the University of Southern Denmark says, “We’ve forgotten to eat seaweed.”

In Korea, Japan and China, seaweed has for centuries been part of an everyday diet and demands are high.
According to new research in the journal, Trends in Food Science and Technology, despite us embracing sushi, eating seaweed is “minimal”.

Mouritsen says it’s because people do not like the thought of eating something washed up and smelling on the seashore. He says, “You wouldn’t go to an orchard and eat the rotting food on the ground”.

However, his research suggests that it’s time we took notice of seaweed and embraced it as an important food. He says, “There’s a whole world of algae out there that can be developed”.

Only around 35 species of seaweed have been used for cooking in the UK, even though the UK waters hold about 630 species. Therefore, there is plenty of untapped potential, agrees Fergus Drennan, trained chef and forager.

He says, “If you were absolutely genius in the kitchen you could probably push that figure up to about 90
“We have a coastline that’s almost as big as the coastline of Japan, which is the greatest seaweed-eating culture in the world… we’ve got as many varieties but we just don’t use it.”

Seaweeds have natural antioxidants such as polyphenols and have a high amount of minerals such as calcium. They are also high in both soluble and insoluble dietary fibres.

Protein from seaweed content ranges between 7-35% of its dry weight, although some species contain as much as 47% protein, such as “nori”.

At QuoteSearcher, we think that it would be good to see seaweed on more menus so we can try it, as it’s not something that many of us are familiar with cooking! What do you think? Would you eat seaweed?

On Monday night in London, the 10th annual World’s 50 Best Restaurant’s awards took place. For most restaurateurs, it’s one of the most anticipated events of the year for the industry and Redzepi took position as the “standard bearer for the New Nordic movement” after Noma was named the best restaurant in the world!

Restaurants that are nominated for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants are voted by a panel of over 800 food critics, restaurateurs and chefs, unlike the Michelin star based system. The Academy is split up into 27 seperate regions around the world and each region has a panel of 31 members.

Each of the members get 7 votes each and 3 of those votes has to be for restaurants outside of their region. The members must also have eaten in their nominated restaurants in the last 18 months.

The Michelin stars are carried out by inspectors, most of who are graduates with between 5 to 10 years experience in the restaurant industry. The stars are awarded based on what’s on the place, whereas the World’s 50 Best takes into account the whole dining experience from the service to the decor.

Redzepi is following in the footsteps of Ferran Adria, whose restaurant El Bulli has won the World’s Best restaurant 5 times and has now been accepted and known as the best chef in the world!

Three restaurants on 2012’s list remain unchanged from 2011’s list. These include Mugaritz and El Celler de Can Roca based in Spain, as well as Noma.

This is great news, especially when in the food industry we are more used to hearing negative news lately, like the increased cost of supplies and restaurant insurance and how food establishments are having to shut down because of the economic climate.

It has certainly been a superb year for Redzepi as in April; the chef was on the cover of Time magazine as a “Locavore Hero”. There has also been mentions of opening a pop up restaurant in London to mark the 2012 Games.

“Every product has a fascinating story behind it.”

Here are Gazzoli’s ideas of what to eat in May:

Wild Garlic

Gazzoli says, “Wild garlic is in season throughout the spring,”

“As an Italian-American, garlic is really my passion and goes back to my Italian roots. Thin garlic green leaves make the perfect addition to a marinade for the lamb before roasting, If you can’t find garlic leaves at your local farmers’ markets, give it a whirl in your garden.”

One of wild garlic’s unusual nicknames is ‘Stinking Jenny’ but don’t let that put you off!

Fresh garden radishes

Gazzoli says, “I think that if it’s amazing enough and the radish is super tasty, which it should be, then you don’t need to do a lot with it,

“It’s a great ingredient you want to savour, so I normally do it with Halen Môn – a really excellent salt – and sometimes a bit of mashed up garlic. I would throw in just a little little bit.”

A healthy, simple snack!

Hampshire Watercress

In one of our previous blog posts we mentioned how Alresford in Hampshire holds a street party in honour of its peppery flavoured watercress. This is because Hampshire used to be the watercress capital of the world! Slow Food UK hopes to bring this back through the Ark of taste. Watercress shouldn’t be ignored as its rich in vitamins and nutrients including iron, calcium and vitamin C.

Gazzoli explains that Hampshire Watercress is a main example of why forgotten foods are significant. She says, “We have to keep it in the market place so that we’re not just down to one kind of watercress that comes from the US for example.”

Morecambe Bay Shrimps

Gazzoli says what makes Morecambe Bay shrimps special is that they are shrimped in the old traditional method. She says, “The story of Morecambe Bay shrimps makes people think that they are a delicacy worth saving.” Since the 18th century, shrimping has been a traditional occupation on the Lancashire coast. Even though you have to peel these shrimps yourself, Gazzoli says, “ They really punch above their weight. It’s a kind salty intense flavour so we’re saying people should go a long way for the Morecambe Bay shrimp rather than losing the taste for them in favour of flown across the world type of shrimp.”

Lincoln Longwool Lamb

Lamb is a good option in May because of the new season and Gazzoli recommends the Lincoln Longwool from Woodland Farm. She explains, “It’s a really good example of protecting edible biodiversity and what it means for livelihoods.”

Longwool Lamb is supported by local farmers, producers, restaurants, butchers and nearby commercial restaurant insurance providers. Gazzoli says, “When people visit they also learn about local producers and special products on the menu of restaurants nearby, it helps revive that part of Britain as a food spot to go to.”

During the 1750s , the Lincoln Longwool was used as foundation stock by Robert Bakewell, a pioneer of stock breeding. Gazzoli says that rare breeds are very important for maintaining local, small agriculture, “Consumers can help to protect our traditional British breeds by eating them and giving them a market. There’s fewer of these breeds so it’s not going to taste as uniform as regular lamb – it’s more of a unique taste.”

Will you be trying anything new in May?

Some teachers admitted buying food for students in the survey, which is the latest report to highlight the impact poverty is having on today’s kids. The Kids Company, a charity that looks after 13,000 children in London, warned earlier this month that more children were visiting its drop in centres, not in search of safety or shelter, but for a meal.

The Trussell Trust, which runs over 200 food banks in the UK, revealed that in the past 12 months, demand has nearly doubled. The charity has opened two new food banks in the last year.

The Prince’s Trust revealed the new figures in a study of 515 teachers from across England. 1 in 4 claimed that pupil’s hunger is a problem and said it was becoming an increasingly common sight because of the recession.

The report also found that 7 out of the 10 secondary school teachers were “increasingly worried” that the students will end up on benefits after leaving full time education. The charity also said that teachers were witnessing their pupils coming into school “hungry”, “dirty” and “struggling to concentrate” since the recession.

Over 1 in 4 teachers said that they often saw children walking miles to school as they can’t afford public transport. A further two-thirds claim that they saw their pupil’s with holes in their shoes. One teacher even said how she saw a pupil walking to school in the snow, just wearing her socks as her shoes no longer fitted.

Some of the teachers said that they have seen a “marked” increase in emotional problems and depression as joblessness took a toll on family life at home. Ginny Lynn, director of policy and strategy said, “ The recession is already damaging the hopes of more than a million young people who are struggling to find a job,

“Now young people in schools are next in line.

“We cannot allow them to become the next victims of the recession.”

The survey conducted by YouGov plc, said in all, 48% of the survey, said that they often saw pupils coming into school who were showing signs that they had not eaten enough or were suffering from malnutrition. One teacher said that they witnessed “scavenger pupils finishing off scraps” and another teacher said that some of the pupils were coming into school to “have food and keep warm”.

One respondent said, “On a daily basis, I witness one child who never changes his clothes at all,

“All term he has been wearing the same two hoodies and jeans.”

According to the report, the most effective way to help deprived youngsters cope with the impact of poverty is to provide them with a mentor. But two fifths said they did not have enough support to do this.

Last month, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers claimed that children were going hungry because their school dinners were too “tiny”. Providers argued that they were reducing the size of school dinners to keep their contracts as public service cuts began to bite and keep the costs down. Recession has affected many people in the industry including providers, suppliers, restaurant insurance providers, manufacturers and restaurants, but the affect it has had to families is often forgotten about.

Founder of the Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh said, “We are seeing responsible parents who are not managing to have food in the house.” The School Food Trust, which advises the Government about children’s nutrition, said for “far too many children” a free school meal was their only proper meal of the day.

The Checkouts Checked Out report revealed that the supermarkets that were included in the survey did not have any healthy food options promoted at the checkouts, but Morrisons, Asda and Iceland were top of the list for having unhealthy food or drink at over 80% of their checkouts. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose were also criticised by the CFC for making customers queue past displays of unhealthy snacks like chocolates, to get to the till.

Registered dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, Sasha Watkins, said, “We all know how hard it is to steer our loved ones in a healthy direction without having to queue past brightly coloured snacks targeted at children. Studies have found that having food within easy reach is more likely to tempt us and parents also have to contend with the added factor of ‘pester power”.

She added that parents are already struggling to keep their children’s calories under control and this is yet another hurdle for families to overcome.

Watkins told the Huffpost Lifestyle that, “Sweets and chocolates are just ‘empty calories’ as they contain high levels of sugar and fat but no other good nutrients like vitamins, minerals or fibre.”

She said that a large population of the UK get their energy intake from added sugar, of which sweets and confectionary is a key source. She said, “This is exactly the type of calorie intake supermarkets should not be promoting if we want to win the battle against the bulge.”

The report discovered that most high street stores and supermarket branches actively sell and promote unhealthy snacks at their queuing areas and tills, even though many said they would reduce doing so. Many sweets, chocolates and crisps were positioned at children’s eye level.

The CFC said it wasn’t just supermarkets displaying sweets and chocolates in queuing areas, but non-food retailers including New Look, WHSmith, HMV and Superdrug.

Sainsbury’s was the only supermarket that confirmed a rule of not selling “impulse confectionary” at their main checkouts, but did say they display “gifting confectionery or seasonal lines”.

Siobhan Feegard, founder of Netmums, said “Parents daren’t take their eyes off their kids for a minute in case they get into trouble and now it seems we need to keep a constant eye on retailers too.

“In the last 10 years we have made so much headway in the battle against junk food with clearer on-pack labelling, but when it comes to the simple issues of junk food on display by the checkout we are back to where we started.

“Stores must stop working against mums and dads and work with us.”

There have been many articles in the press recently about the rising problems of obesity, so everyone in the industry needs to work together including supermarkets, restaurants, UK restaurant insurance providers, manufacturers and other suppliers, to help tackle the problem.

75 year old Carluccio, who is currently starring on BBC Two in ‘Two Greedy Italians’ says that the kids meals are creating a nation of unhealthy eaters and they should be served the same food as adults.

He said to the Daily Telegraph, “’You see some parents in restaurants and it’s “Give the children some chips.”

“But they are not positive for the body. Restaurants are for everybody and the earlier you start to appreciate normal food that grown-ups are eating, the better you will eat.”

Something that I agree with, is that Carluccio says children should grow up eating different types of food, because they will recognise what they like, even if they don’t appreciate it. Most foods on children’s menus are different to the adult dishes, usually you’ll find fish and chips, burger and chips, fish fingers etc.

The chef also says that there are too many junk food adverts which children are bombarded with.

The chain of restaurants, Carluccio’s which the chef works as a consultant after selling his stake in 2005, does offer a children’s menu but is just a smaller portion of main, adult dishes.

Carluccio’s warning comes after medical experts hit out at the government’s obesity strategy and launched their own campaign to tackle Britain’s junk food problem.

The Academy of Royal Medical Colleges (AoMRC), which represents every doctor in the UK said that there was a “huge crisis waiting to happen” because of the government failing to deal with the obesity problems.

The AoMRC will look at the actions individuals can take, as well as the impact of sponsorship and advertising, over a three month investigation.

Some of their suggestions include a tax on the most unhealthiest food and a ban on fast food joints sponsoring major events e.g. McDonalds advertising and sponsoring the London Olympics. They hope to drive awareness and get support from the general public, restaurants and other people in the food industry including commercial restaurant insurance providers, manufacturers and suppliers.

Vice chairman of the AoMRC, Professor Terence Stephenson, who is also the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, says, “Our starting point is the collective desire to ensure the healthcare profession is doing all it can to detect, treat, manage – and ultimately prevent – obesity.

“It is unprecedented that the medical royal colleges and faculties have come together on such a high-profile public health issue.”